Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals.
Verse 33. Be not deceived. By your false teachers, and by their smooth and plausible arguments. This is an exhortation. He had thus far been engaged in an argument on the subject. He now entreats them to beware lest they be deceived--a danger to which they were very liable from their circumstances.
Here the apostle advises them to take heed of being corrupted in their manners by such wicked principles as epicures would be ready to instill into them. Ill words draw persons on to ill deeds; therefore, says he, look to your communication and discourse, take heed of debauching your morals by evil communications; and he backs this exhortation with a forcible motive, because that such...
Thou fool,.... Not transgressing the law of Christ, which makes him that calls his brother a fool in danger of hell fire; for the apostle said not this in anger, and from a malevolent disposition, as that rule supposes, but out of zeal for truth, and to reprove the stupidity and folly of such a bold objector; in opposing the veracity and power of God...